when duke wins, the kids win

What's better than something you love? Combining two somethings you love. Obviously. Which is exactly what is happening right here. Yesiree. That's Duke + chocolate milk.

When he ran his marathon, Team Refuel asked him to ad lib a commercial. Whoever gets the most votes will be sponsored - and every time you vote, a dollar is donated to the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

So - what I'm saying is - you should vote for Duke, and everybody wins. Literally! Everybody! 

You can vote every day this month, so vote early, vote often and crack up at his ever-so-convincing love of chocolate milk. He's a natural, I tell you! 

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king of savannah

Remember how I told you my family stinks at resting? I am fairly certain Duke is the worst at it (no offense, Dukie :)).

He's basically just a machine. I am not actually sure if he feels physical pain, and he's insanely focused. Growing up, my parents often had to remind him to eat, or remind him that he was, in fact, sick, and should probably take it easy.

This weekend, these traits were wildly apparent when he ran dominated the Savannah marathon. Sub-eights, plus negative splitting - yes. for 26.2 miles. Insane! He's amazing!

I was planning on attending the race, then my mom decided to come surprise him, too (yaay!). She flew into Atlanta, then we drove to Savannah Friday night. We got a real kick out of it when Duke called us both and we lied about what we were doing, since we were actually doing the side-by-side, en route to cheer him on.

We surprised him at mile 21. Afterwards we asked him if he saw us, because it didn't seem to register, and he said he thought he smiled and waved. He did not :) Focused, I tell ya. But after 21+ miles at the pace, can you blame him?!

After the race, we explored and dined in Savannah.

The next day, we dropped Duke off at school, then came back to Atlanta. We made a quick roadside pitstop along the way because my mom had never seen cotton before. After many an Indiana corn shucked, she felt it her Midwestern duty to check out the cotton fields, too.

It was just wonderful, as always, spending the weekend with them. Way to go, Duke! We are so proud of you!

hoop

My roommate Katie was in a hula hooping club in college and, needless to say, she could hoop you under the table. She's got skills.

This spring, she taught me how to hoop - a hobby that really took off at the beach over Memorial Day. Not only is it a good workout for your waist, it also turned out to be a great way to make friends. Everyone wanted a piece of our hoops.

I hooped my way into Week 3 of Laura's wellness challenge. It isn't technically a brand new exercise, but it is a broken-foot-friendly-exercise, and offered an alternative to just arms and abs every day.

As someone who finds comfort in routine and relies on my daily run to clear my head, help me reconnect with what matters and find peace, it's been incredibly hard not to have this time alone&away from my desk (and everything). Although hula hooping didn't fulfill these needs, it was a nice way to be outside and feel a little bit of rhythm and routine.

I hope you had a good, stretchy week!

::healthy life::

When I started talking about how I broke my foot, there was a ridiculous amount of people who asked me if I thought maybe my foot broke so easily because I run too much.

My first thought was: Um. Excuse me? To imply that I am weak? And to imply that I have done this to myself? And to imply that I do something too much? Rude.

But then, after enough people started saying it, it started to make its way into my conscience.

Could that be it? Could it be that the searing pain that shoots through my foot constantly was trying to tell me something? Trying to tell me to scale back?

And isn't that how it works? When you're immediate reaction is frustration with someone, it typically means they're right.

And then, as I dove back into the blogosphere last week and realized almost all of my top blog obsessions were either (1) workout or (2) healthy-living related, the theory really began to take legs.

Fortunately, I clearly will not be running until December, so whatever break from running this body may have needed is going to take place.

But it got me thinking about how almost everyone I know does too much of something - whether it be a good habit turned vice, or work, or leading charity committees - it's hard to remember moderation. Too much of a good thing is really a thing. And it's important not to let those things control everything.

So, I thought this the perfect opportunity to participate in Laura's healthy living challenge. I mentioned last week that I already know that when I do some of these things, I feel like a significantly better person. So why not really dedicate these next booted-up weeks to this? I'm skipping the first week (drink more water) because I don't think it possible for someone to drink more water than me. If I drink any more of it, I might actually drown myself. And that'd be, yet again, too much of a good thing.

So this week is rest, which is just what the doctor ordered (for real though). I am going to try to go to bed at the same time every night this week, which is going to be hard because I have two birthday parties and a 10 pm flight to LA Thursday. But, I am going to focus more on the rest my foot portion of things. So not letting myself walk places I know I shouldn't (like to MARTA), not mowing the lawn, etc. I think it's going to be a good goal.

You should join me in this endeavor, too! Check out the plan below. See you next week, Stretch!